TY - JOUR A1 - Nchiozem-Ngnitedem, Vaderament-Alexe A1 - Sperlich, Eric A1 - Matieta, Valaire Yemene A1 - Kuete, Jenifer Reine Ngnouzouba A1 - Kuete, Victor A1 - Omer, Ejlal A. A. A1 - Efferth, Thomas A1 - Schmidt, Bernd T1 - Synthesis and bioactivity of isoflavones from ficus carica and some non-natural analogues JF - Journal of natural products : Lloydia N2 - FicucariconeD (1) and its 4 '-demethyl congener 2 are isoflavones isolated from fruits of Ficus carica that share a 5,7-dimethoxy-6-prenyl-substituted A-ring. Both naturalproducts were, for the first time, obtained by chemical synthesisin six steps, starting from 2,4,6-trihydroxyacetophenone. Key stepsare a microwave-promoted tandem sequence of Claisen- and Cope-rearrangementsto install the 6-prenyl substituent and a Suzuki-Miyaura crosscoupling for installing the B-ring. By using various boronic acids,non-natural analogues become conveniently available. All compoundswere tested for cytotoxicity against drug-sensitive and drug-resistanthuman leukemia cell lines, but were found to be inactive. The compoundswere also tested for antimicrobial activities against a panel of eightGram-negative and two Gram-positive bacterial strains. Addition ofthe efflux pump inhibitor phenylalanine-arginine-beta-naphthylamide(PA beta N) significantly improved the antibiotic activity in mostcases, with MIC values as low as 2.5 mu M and activity improvementfactors as high as 128-fold. KW - Antimicrobial activity KW - Bacteria KW - Ethers KW - Flavonoids KW - Mixtures Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jnatprod.3c00219 SN - 0163-3864 SN - 1520-6025 VL - 86 IS - 6 SP - 1520 EP - 1528 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington, DC ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lood, Kajsa A1 - Tikk, Triin A1 - Krüger, Mandy A1 - Schmidt, Bernd T1 - Methylene capping facilitates cross-metathesis reactions of enals BT - a short synthesis of 7-methoxywutaifuranal from the xylochemical isoeugenol JF - The journal of organic chemistry N2 - Four combinations of type-I olefins isoeugenol and 4-hydroxy-3-methoxystyrene with type-II olefins acrolein and crotonaldehyde were investigated in cross-metathesis (CM) reactions. While both type-I olefins are suitable CM partners for this transformation, we observed synthetically useful conversions only with type-II olefin crotonaldehyde. For economic reasons, isoeugenol, a cheap xylochemical available from renewable lignocellulose or from clove oil, is the preferred type-I CM partner. Nearly quantitative conversions to coniferyl aldehyde by the CM reaction of isoeugenol and crotonaldehyde can be obtained at ambient temperature without a solvent or at high substrate concentrations of 2 mol.L-1 with the second-generation Hoveyda-Grubbs catalyst. Under these conditions, the ratio of reactants can be reduced to 1:1.5 and catalyst loadings as low as 0.25 mol % are possible. The high reactivity of the isoeugenol/crotonaldehyde combination in olefin metathesis reactions was demonstrated by a short synthesis of the natural product 7-methoxywutaifuranal, which was obtained from isoeugenol in a 44% yield over five steps. We suggest that the superior performance of crotonaldehyde in the CM reactions investigated can be rationalized by "methylene capping", i.e., the steric stabilization of the propagating Ru-alkylidene species. KW - Aldehydes KW - Catalysts KW - Hydrocarbons KW - Metathesis KW - Mixtures Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.joc.1c02851 SN - 0022-3263 SN - 1520-6904 VL - 87 IS - 5 SP - 3079 EP - 3088 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER -